Back in the days of dial-up and FTPing…
When I joined Doula UK in 2002 there were not many of us but most of our members at that time attended all meetings. I had done my training with BOND (British School of Nurturing Doulas) and decided to connect with my nearest doula, which happened to Nicola Wilson. She invited me to come along to a Doula UK meeting which was being held at her house in Bucks Hill, literally around the corner from me, in Hertfordshire.
I remember turning up at this beautiful house and being welcomed with hugs and love. Hilary Lewin, the chair at the time, was there in her beret and they were all so welcoming and warm. We all sat in a big circle, probably around 40 of us, and talked about how to grow the organisation and spread the knowledge about doulas. I can vividly remember someone having taken on the task of creating a charity and over the years (14 of them!!) this person has changed numerous times. Here we now are in 2016 and ready to turn this vision into reality as we turn Doula UK into a Community Interest Company (CIC), which presented itself as the perfect option for Doula UK in the end.
Being a new and very keen doula, I offered to help with whatever needed doing and I was given the role of helping out with the website as I had some experience of this in my previous background. I used to be a Desktop Engineer for a management company and had limited experience of the WWW as it was all quite new still.
In 2004, Vida Rye, another founder of Doula UK and the person responsible for building the very first website handed over all responsibility to me as she was moving to New Zealand. Back in those days (sounds like I’m over a hundred), most homes did not have internet connections so it was a case of unplugging the phone and plugging the cable from the computer in and dial up for access to the internet. This method was painfully slow and the only way websites could be updated was by using software called FTP. I’m sure there’s a few of you out there remembering the dialling tone and the sounds when the connection was made with the modem on the other side. There was also no lovely website interface, like WordPress or Weebly, just all written in code. I had no experience whatsoever in coding and spent many hours trying to get the right part in bold, underlined, italic or indeed, just a space between paragraphs!
It was hours of dedication and learning by making mistakes. Compared to what we have today, it’s quite unbelievable that anyone would take on such a job! I’m grateful for what I learnt during those years and it still comes in handy now when I want to do my own bits of coding. It was also in 2004 that we also started our recognition process and the year were a few new doula courses appeared in the UK.
I felt so welcomed to the cuddle of doulas back in 2002 and hope that I can give that same gift to all new doulas that join our organisation.
Kicki Hansard is Chair of Doula UK
Katy says
Thank you for this insight, I have enjoyed reading this. xx
Gwen Grant says
I remember the dial-up: you must have been very dedicated to get the website up and running!
Sophia Smith says
Dear Kicki,
You bring it up so vividly, thank you for this look-in…and for your dedication, patience and laborious trial and error journey with the early WWW/communication systems, and for your warmth.
I seem to recall the ringtone of fax machines now!
I hope workload not nearly so fiddly….
Thank you for everything over the years.
Sophia
joan mills says
Thanks Kicki, I joined in 2013 and I can honestly say It has felt very similar to me.
Ive belonged to other organasitions over the years but the genuine warmth ,friendship and support from this organasition is unique and tangible.The more local groups are what bring us together as a cuddle not the big events that take months of planning.Here in Hertfordshire we meet about every 8 weeks in someone’s house ,share soup and bread and nice cakes.We laugh, talk rubbish and have deep meaningful debate.Its never the same doulas but always a good turn out.I hope this continues to happen for all new and well experienced doulas meeting and sharing .i\It is invaluable because when I started out I really did not know what being a doula was all about.
Now 4yrs down the road of discovery I’m starting to find out and this is thanks to my clients and all my lovely doula cuddle.
Hilary says
I am so happy to be back in here as a lifelong member and still wear Beret’s on a regular basis. DUK was such a big learning point in my life and I am so grateful for all the lovely women I have met along the way.
This organisation has come a long way since the first meeting in Michel Odents front room and one of the things I remember most is the high quality of cake we always had at our meetings 🙂
We all learnt a lot and did it with nothing but good will and faith, it is amazing what a focused group of women can achieve and to see it today makes me want bow down at the feet of all those who have made it so great.Well done to all of you who took a little acorn and grew it into this beautiful tree. Hilary xxxx